Upholstery unit



H. G. MORNER UFHOLSTERY UNIT Jan. 17, 1950 Filed June 24, 1947 \SA I W 1 WES ATTOR HANS GEORGE MORNER Patented Jan. 17, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE UPHOLSTEBY UNIT Hans George Morner, New York, N. Y.

Application June 24, 1947, Serial No. 756,770

1 Claim. 1

This invention relates to improvements in air filledupholstery units such as cushions, upholstery, mattresses and the like.

Objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part hereinafter and in part will be obvious herefrom, or may be learned by practice with the invention, the same being realinvention.

Of the drawings: I

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary top plan view of a mattress in accordance with the invention;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary view of a mattress in cross section along the line 22 as shown in Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary plan view of a mattress in detail as shown in Fig. 1.

It is an object of the invention to provide an improved type of air filled upholstery unit which may be simply, cheaply and quickly constructed.

Another object of the invention is to provide an air filled cushion, upholstery or mattress made of material which may readily be cleaned by washing and which can also be easily sterilized by washing with a suitable antiseptic solution without damage to its material.

A further object of this invention is to provide an air filled cushion or mattress which is of extremely light weight, so that it may be manually moved or turned over with ease.

Still another object of the invention is to provide an air filled cushion, mattress or upholstery adapted to yield elastically under the body weight of a user, having a minimum tendency to curl, roll or bulge, when in use and which will regain its original shape when the pressure of the user's body is removed.

In general this improved type of air filled upholstery unit comprises two contiguous layers, positioned one over the other, of closely adjacent similar gas containing cells substantially hemlspherical in shape, said cells in one layer positioned in uniformly staggered relationship to the cells of the other layer, said cells having walls formed of flexible, impervious, thermoplastic sheet material, one wall of each cell in each layer 2 shaped as a hemispherical cup. said Well of each cell in each layer formed from a single sheet of said material, the other wall of each cell in each layer also formed from a single sheet of said material, the two last sheets in the two layers forming respectively the top and bottom surfaces of the mattress or other air filled upholstery unit.

It will be understood that the foregoing general description and the following detailed description as well are exemplary and explanatory of the invention but are not restrictive thereof. Referring-now to the drawings in detail and particularly to Fig. 1, the invention is shown as applied to a pneumatic mattress of thermoplastic material, which, in a preferred embodiment, consists of the plasticized copolymer of vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate, the mixture comprising approximately vinyl chloride and 20% vinyl acetate, having an upper surface 4 formed of a single sheet of thermoplastic material. Referring to Fig. 2, a single sheet of thermoplastic material 6 forms the hemispherical cup shaped walls of cells A and A in the upper layer while single sheet 8 forms the similar walls of cells B and B. Single sheet 4 forms small connected closure surfaces, somewhat convex in cross section, over cells A and A while single sheet N forms a similar closure surface for cells B and B. Sheets 4 and 6 are permanently and securely sealed together at H as by heat sealing, while sheets 8 and III are similarly sealed.

' The uniformly staggered relationship between cells A, A and B, B is found to be very advantageous when a user's body weight is imposed upon the mattress as the cells because of their uniformly staggered relationship tend to support each other preventing undesirable distortion of the mattress shape while the arrangement permits of considerable resiliency which adds to the comfort of the user. It will readily be seen that if the mattress or other upholstery unit is to be formed with substantially flat edges, partial spheres (3 formed at necessary intervals will prevent marginal breaks in the continuity of the weight supporting characteristics of the mattress.

Top and bottom surface forming sheets 4 and ill have an area substantially greater than the top and bottom plane areas of said mattress. The overlapping area of sheet 4 is formed around core I4, sealed together at l6 and extends downwardly beyond said core l4 and is sealed to sheet 6 at IS. The overlapping part of sheet I0 is similarly formed around a core, is upwardly extended beyond the core and similarly sealed to sheet 8. The above described upwardly and 3 downwardly extending sheets are sealed at 20, forming the side surfaces of the mattress which are of double thickness. The forming of sheets 4 and 6 around core I! provides a continuous overhanging rolled edge extending completely around the upper edge of the mattress and similarly around its lower edge thus forming a convenient hand grip. The dead air spaces in the interstices 22 will tend to be sealed into individual compartments when the upholstery unit is in use thus imparting additional resiliency to the structure.

The invention in its broader aspects is not limited to the specific mechanisms shown and described but departures may be made therefrom, within the scope of the accompanying claim, without departing from the principles of the invention and without sacrificing its chief advantages.

What I claim is:

An air filled upholstery member comprising two contiguous layers of closely adjacent air filled cells, the cells in each layer having walls substantially hemispherical in shape and other walls slightly convex in shape sealed to the hemi- 25 spherical walls, said hemispherical cell walls in each layer being formed of a single sheet of flexible impervious material, said convex cell walls in each layer also being formed of a single sheet 4 of flexible impervious material, said hemispherical walls of each layer being positioned inwardly in said upholstery member, said hemispherical walls in each layer having a uniformly staggered relationship to the opposing hemispherical walls of the other layer, said convex cell walls in each layer forming the exterior 1101) and bottom surfaces of said air filled upholstery member. Y

HANS GEORGE MORNER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 602,486 Szulezewski Apr. 19, 1898 1,173,114 Lane Feb. 22, 1916 2,171,805 Picard Sept. 5, 1939' 2,193,750 Weiker et a1. Mar, 12, 1940 2,415,150 Stein Feb. 4, 1947 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 787,263 France July 1, 1935 794,573 France Dec. 12, 1935 

